Tag: Europe

Greater commercial freedom for Post Office Ltd

Posted by | May 30, 2008 | |

Postcomm’s Post Office Network Annual Report this year will, among other things, look at whether more can be done to give Post Office Ltd greater commercial freedom to secure new business. We believe that the right products and services to bring in customers are vital to ensure the long term future of the network after the current closure programme.

At present, Post Office Ltd has an exclusive trading arrangement with Royal Mail that restricts to Royal Mail the authority to negotiate with other operators or companies who may want to use the post office network as a collection or delivery point. Subpostmasters, in turn, have a contract with Post Office Ltd that allows them to provide postal services only for Royal Mail and Parcelforce.

In Postcomm’s view, the post office network and customers could benefit from a much more open approach than has been shown up to now in welcoming and attracting the business of other mail operators. Post Office Ltd might also benefit from greater freedom to align itself more closely with a wide range of other businesses such as local government and other community services.

The results of our work will be published as part of the Post Office Network Annual Report in October 2008.

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Russian Post changes tariff rates for letter correspondence delivery

Posted by | May 30, 2008 | |

Beginning with 1st of June Russian Post changes tariff rates for universal postal service (cards, letters, packets delivery). The Federal Tariff Service issued the corresponding decision îf April 25, 2008.
Delivery of ordinary postcard is to cost 5 rub. 50 cop.(4 rub. 75 cop. before), registered card 8 rub. 00 cop. (6 rub. 60 cop. before), ordinary letter weighs to 20 g 7 rub. 50 cop.(6 rub. 50 cop. before), registered letter weighs tî 20 g – 12 rub.00 cop. (9 rub. 90 cop. before), letter with insured value weighs to 20 g – 40 rub. 00 cop.( 32 rub. 90 cop. before) correspondently.
Despite of indexation tariff rates for universal postal services don’t cover net price. Tariff rates indexation helps to reduce Russian Post losses of the service partly.
Last time tariff rates were adjusted according to an index one and half year ago in 2006.

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Royal Mail misses delivery target

Posted by | May 30, 2008 | |

Royal Mail has said it missed its key target for delivering first-class post on time in the 2007-8 financial year because of industrial action.

About 85 pct of letters arrived the next day, missing the 93 pct target.

The watchdog Postwatch said the strikes had “blown Royal Mail off course”, but it complained the service had not recovered quickly enough.

It argued that poor service should affect executives’ bonuses. Last year, the chief executive was paid GBP 3m.

The delivery of second-class letters was more reliable, according to the figures released by Royal Mail, but also fell short of the required level.

More than 95 pct of the second-class post arrived on time, compared with a target of 99 pct.

Only standard parcels beat their target for the year, with 90.4 pct arriving on time.

The company said it was working hard to improve its service and “restore the record levels seen before last year’s dispute”.
In a postcode-based list published by Postwatch, nine out of 10 letters were delivered on time last year in Twickenham, Kingston upon Thames, Luton, St Albans, north-west London and Canterbury.
While in Stoke-on-Trent, Colchester, south-west London, Oxford, Chelmsford and Dundee, only around four out of five first class letters were delivered on time.

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Royal Mail failed 75 per cent of its service targets

Posted by | May 30, 2008 | |

Official figures published last night reveal that the organisation missed nine of the 12 minimum service levels.
The reliability of the first-class delivery service fell to 85.2per cent. This was below the organisation’s target which requires that at least 93per cent of first class mail is delivered by the following day.
Royal Mail also missed delivery targets for second class post, special delivery and standard parcels, the cornerstones of the service.
However, it is clear that the business missed the crucial targets, a failure condemned by the official consumer body PostWatch.
A series of strikes over pay, pensions and working hours caused huge disruption to services during last summer.
PostWatch said Royal Mail, under Mr Crozier, had been slow to put in place a recovery plan once the dispute was settled.
Many had to find other ways to communicate. This will have reduced postal volumes, which will in turn damage Royal Mail’s financial stability for years to come.
Average daily volumes are down from 84 million items to about 80 million.
Thousands of post offices have already been closed with more to go.
The second delivery has been scrapped, while the first delivery of the day has been moved back to the afternoon for millions of homes and businesses.
At the same time collections from post boxes have been cut and Sunday collections have been scrapped.

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Direct mail 'better than internet or phone'

Posted by | May 30, 2008 | |

Companies may be better off contacting potential customers via direct mail than the internet or telephone, according to new research.
A study carried out by Amarach on behalf of the Irish postal service An Post, claimed the majority of people read their post as soon as they receive it.

Although around 70 pct of people felt most of the direct mail they receive is irrelevant, nearly half said that they enjoy reading their post and 70 pct said they preferred companies to use the postal service.

The positive response for direct mail is surprising given that in the same research, nearly two-thirds of the people surveyed said they felt negatively towards direct mail.

Furthermore, 80 pct of the 1,000 people who were surveyed for the report said they felt the amount of direct mail sent out should be limited because of the impact on the environment.

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